The scoop on Griselda Barajas

CEO and president of Griselda's Catering & Event Planning; owner and operator of Tex-Mex at the Capitol

The essentials

Age: 36

Born in Mexico City, raised in Houston. She now lives in Sacramento with her husband, Michael Keolanui, and 1-year-old daughter Grace

Education: High school graduate

Her favorite things

Quote: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King Jr.

Hobbies: Golfing and swimming

Griselda Barajas has been in the food service industry since she was 10, when she worked in her parents' Mexican products distribution business in Houston. When she was 21, she opened The Texas Mexican restaurant on 8th Street in downtown Sacramento with the help of her parents, friends and credit cards, and from time to time, met payroll by being lucky at blackjack and craps tables.

Now 36, Barajas was pressured to sell her first restaurant when the city claimed the property under eminent domain, but since 2001 she has been operating a restaurant in the basement of the state Capitol, Tex-Mex at the Capitol (which will be re-named Griselda's World Cafe this fall and offer a wider variety of foods). She also operates a catering business that had revenue growth of 30 percent in the past year due to a growing number of contracts, including with various teams in the National Basketball Association. In November, she and her husband, chef Michael Keolanui, hope to re-open Texas Mexican restaurant at 8th and K streets.

A longtime community volunteer, Barajas recently was elected chair of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and was also named the Small Business Advocate of the Year in 2000 by the California Chamber of Commerce.

What drew you to food preparation?

I really enjoy working with people. I really like that when you're sharing a part of your culture, such as your food, you're sharing a bit of yourself. I'm Hispanic, and I'm very passionate about my culture and passionate about my food. Cuisine is an art, and it's something we lose as we go from one generation to another, so I'm proud to preserve recipes that have been in my family.

The restaurant industry is notorious for its rapid turnover, yet many of your employees have worked with you and your family for 17 years. What do you offer?

One of my goals is to have a positive-energy environment. I try to surround myself with people who have a can-do attitude. I try to build on their strengths, and we work on their weaknesses, and if we can't come to an understanding of how to work as a team, I help them find an environment where they can be more comfortable. I'm a union shop, and I also support employees by giving them a day off per month with pay so they can spend a day volunteering at their child's school. My experience has been, when a principal calls a job site because (an employee's) kid is dropping out of school or having a disciplinary problem, it affects them at work.

How do you handle the challenge of running a business whose clientele -- largely consisting of legislators, lobbyists and their staff -- disappears for months at a time?

We used to have (a cafe upstairs in the state Capitol), but we decided not to continue that one because what happens when the session ends is it's very difficult for me to have staff up there when there are not enough clients to support them. We closed it last September.

We've been doing a lot more weddings and consulting for weddings, and we do a lot of catering of fundraisers and for owners of private airplanes, such as (NBA teams) the LA Clippers, the New York Knicks, the Trailblazers, and for people like Paul Allen, owner of the Seattle Seahawks and one of the founders of Microsoft. We cater to his private 757 plane. We started getting into that area in the past two years.

What are your future plans?

The two things we want to do next year are more weddings and open a second location. I prefer to stay downtown because that's where I've built a loyal clientele. I think (the new restaurant) will be international; that's why we're creating the concept of Griselda's World Cafe (at the Capitol). We're shifting the way we're structuring ourselves, so we're building momentum. At Griselda's World Cafe, we'll be offering an assortment of foods: sushi, Mexican, a carving station. We want to give ourselves a new identity; we don't want people to think we just do Mexican. People are in different moods on different days, so if I want you to come down to my place every day, I have to offer different things so you don't get bored.

My husband has helped us grow. Normally, we wouldn't have the confidence of putting out (foods such as) filet mignon, but he has all the skills as a chef, and he has the confidence to teach the girls to do things differently and prepare different types of food.